MOUNT LYELL RESOURCES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1931, Page 12

MOUNT LYELL RESOURCES

CREATING EMPLOYMENT

'"With our capital expenditure virtually . completed and our plant in good shape, i Jwe are, we]l placed to moet further depression should sncli fall to our lot, or to achieve a reward for past sacrifices, if conditions, improve," said the chairman, Mr. Colin Templeton, at the" annual meeting ot the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company in Melbourne recently. Mr. Templeton said: "The low prices recently.-tpuched made production unprofitable for practically all pfbducevs throughout the :world,,and it is generally accept•d thai; the underlying reason for the de-cline/-not only 1 in the prkeg of metals, but also , of, practically eyery commodity, _is the reduction in the' purchasing capacity of Europe; "This in turn has brought about a similar decline in the purchasing capacity of the "rest of the world, owing ta the restricted volume of international trade. The consequence, is that there is a ■want of confidence in the future even in those countries which have monetary resources. Until thase conditions are chapg.ed we cannot hope for any substantial improvement. It is_not that money is 'wanting to set'the wheels of industry in motion. It is mote a, matter of restoring "confidence in' trade, "But for improvements carried out dur•fag the last four years," the chairman added, "mining operations would have ceased months ago, and -our very existence ss a copper producer would have been at "*take. With a pay roll of £1000 a day, ,this would have been disastrous to Tas- , mania*.-. The result :oi: our..policy has been "to create increased employment at a time when the vast majority of employers has been reluctantly compelled to shorten .hands." r